revenge

The third and final part of Zacuto’s debate provoking documentary on cinematography and cameras is out. Part 3 is to me kind of like Revenging the Revenge because it goes back to a non-creative scientific (empirical) test of the cameras.

They appear in order of cost from the $700 iPhone to the $70,000 Sony F65 and each are treated with the same lighting, similar settings and the same grading to match as closely as possible.

The results are in from Zacuto’s Revenge Of The Great Camera Shootout 2012. The majority of those at the cinema screenings – including Francis Ford Coppola preferred Colt Seaman’s lighting and the capturing of it by the Panasonic GH2.

This choice was above the stiffest possible competition including the Sony F65, Red Epic, Canon C300 and Arri Alexa. There’s a comment from Part 2 which really stands out for me and it sums up the reason EOSHD and my passion to write my GH2 book and the blog exists –

“The thing I was most impressed with is that some guys or gals with something to prove did better at lighting than the established cinematographers with a good camera” – Bruce Lundeen (33 min 13 seconds)

This is how you make a great film, a great shot, a great scene – Passion, hunger, creativity and a $700 camera.

Today the first episode of Zacuto’s 2012 shootout is aired. (Update: it is now live – watch it here). This isn’t really a shootout in a technical sense rather a subjective and less scientific comparison whereby each camera is made to look as good as possible. Several leading cameras were used including the Alexa and Sony F65.

Zacuto have revealed in a technical document how each camera was setup, so we’ll take a look first at the GH2 and FS100 to see what settings were settled on for the shootout and who the people behind the cameras are.